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CNN Saturday Morning News
Questions About Lack of Action to Put Out Largest of California Fires
Aired November 01, 2003 - 08:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, some hard questions are being asked about why the largest of the fires wasn't stopped when stopping it might have been easy.
CNN's Miguel Marquez is live in San Bernardino this morning.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol, we're at the Incident Command Post for the old fire. The folks are working here round the clock for this fire. It's just an enormous job they're doing these days. This fire is 45 percent contained now. That containment figure has rapidly increased overnight because mainly the southern part of the fire has completely burned out. It's raining in San Bernardino. It's snowing up in the mountains. That's helping firefighters quite a bit. They expect to have full containment of this fire by November 8. That's next Saturday at 6:00 p.m.
But this is not the only fire in the state, obviously. The Cedar Fire near San Diego, just an enormous fire, the largest in the state's history. Over 2200 homes destroyed. Authorities believe that it started when a hunter, a lost hunter may have sent up a flare and it may have set off this fire upon. A chopper pilot for the Sheriff's Department who happened to be up in the air at the time saw it, says that he called it in, saw the fire. But he was told that the Forest Service could not respond with their choppers with the buckets because of their rules.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENE PALOS, DEPUTY, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: As I was going over the top of Gillespie, I was told to disengage from our communications center, relayed from the Forest Service.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they tell you why they wanted you to stop?
PALOS: Well, the rules and regulations require you to stop making drops at a certain time, half hour before sunset.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: Now, the Forest Service for its part says there are reasons they have the rules they do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICH HAWKINS, U.S. FORSET SERVICE: I suspect, although I don't know. I suspect that there their no-fly rule in terms of darkness has probably come about for many good reasons; probably many of those reasons were tragic. And I don't know that it's for us in law enforcement to question the judgment of those in the fire services at times like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: Unfortunately, this is probably not the last we'll hear of this. There is major concern about this particular fire. It was not only deadly, but it destroyed many, many homes. It tore through hundreds of thousands of acres. There's already discussion that a panel be named so they can investigate exactly what happened and whether or not this fire could have been headed off at the beginning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Miguel Marquez reporting live from San Bernardino, California, this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
California Fires>
Aired November 1, 2003 - 08:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, some hard questions are being asked about why the largest of the fires wasn't stopped when stopping it might have been easy.
CNN's Miguel Marquez is live in San Bernardino this morning.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol, we're at the Incident Command Post for the old fire. The folks are working here round the clock for this fire. It's just an enormous job they're doing these days. This fire is 45 percent contained now. That containment figure has rapidly increased overnight because mainly the southern part of the fire has completely burned out. It's raining in San Bernardino. It's snowing up in the mountains. That's helping firefighters quite a bit. They expect to have full containment of this fire by November 8. That's next Saturday at 6:00 p.m.
But this is not the only fire in the state, obviously. The Cedar Fire near San Diego, just an enormous fire, the largest in the state's history. Over 2200 homes destroyed. Authorities believe that it started when a hunter, a lost hunter may have sent up a flare and it may have set off this fire upon. A chopper pilot for the Sheriff's Department who happened to be up in the air at the time saw it, says that he called it in, saw the fire. But he was told that the Forest Service could not respond with their choppers with the buckets because of their rules.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENE PALOS, DEPUTY, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: As I was going over the top of Gillespie, I was told to disengage from our communications center, relayed from the Forest Service.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they tell you why they wanted you to stop?
PALOS: Well, the rules and regulations require you to stop making drops at a certain time, half hour before sunset.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: Now, the Forest Service for its part says there are reasons they have the rules they do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICH HAWKINS, U.S. FORSET SERVICE: I suspect, although I don't know. I suspect that there their no-fly rule in terms of darkness has probably come about for many good reasons; probably many of those reasons were tragic. And I don't know that it's for us in law enforcement to question the judgment of those in the fire services at times like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: Unfortunately, this is probably not the last we'll hear of this. There is major concern about this particular fire. It was not only deadly, but it destroyed many, many homes. It tore through hundreds of thousands of acres. There's already discussion that a panel be named so they can investigate exactly what happened and whether or not this fire could have been headed off at the beginning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Miguel Marquez reporting live from San Bernardino, California, this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
California Fires>
